The Children of the Satellite Dish, Bypassing Ideology in Cuba

Yoani Sanchez - Award-winning Cuban blogger

The Children of the Satellite Dish, Bypassing Ideology in Cuba
Posted: 05/17/2013 3:50 pm

For World Telecommunication and Information Society Day

They look the same as everyone else: small, restless, ready to play and
joke, like any child. But something distinguishes them beyond the
neighborhood where they live or the family they belong to. They are part
of a generation that is escaping the indoctrination of the official
media because they have taken refuge in illegal television programming.
They are "the children of the satellite dish," the direct consumers of
the programming on these satellite dishes, as widespread as they are
persecuted. When the teacher asks them, in the classroom, what they saw
on the news the day before, they are the ones who look at the ceiling
and invent some response. But when they interact among themselves, they
all know the name of the trendy host in Florida or who won the latest
Nuestra Belleza Latina contest.

There are no clear studies of how many people on the Island access these
banned channels. It is difficult to calculate because it is a topic
little spoken of in public, for fear of confiscations and fines; but
also because it's enough for one family to have one of these satellite
dishes to pass the signal via cable to a dozen, a score, or fifty
neighboring homes. The most daring have installed the cable under the
streets, pretending they were making an authorized repair because of
some broken pipe. The principle owner of the persecuted artifact is the
one who decides the programming that all subscribers then see on their
respective screens. The monthly price is around ten dollars, although
some can have the service for free, especially the neighborhood
informers, to buy their silence.

However, beyond these technical details of how such an illegality is
committed, the most interesting thing is the sociological phenomenon it
is generating. Many Cubans of the younger generations -- particularly in
the capital -- barely watch national television. They have escaped the
ideological dose of this portal and have replaced it with a more
frivolous but less politicized assortment. Among this TV audience are
many children, for whom the effect of the slogans and official campaigns
is detrimental. They are the children of the satellite dish, breastfed
with the illicit and used to the other side of information or
misinformation. They have grown up with the remote control in their
hands and, with a simple click, they access the prohibited every day.

PS: "It makes no sense to prohibit" the circulation of news, because it
is "an almost impossible chimera," because people "know it." "Today the
news is everywhere, the good, the bad, the manipulated and the true, the
half-truths, circulating on the networks, reaching the people, people
know it, and the worse thing is silence," the official told a conference
of educators -- according to a television report from a few days ago
about the words of Miguel Diaz-Canel, first vice president of Cuba.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/yoani-sanchez/the-children-of-the-satel_b_3294524.html